Breast Cancer Awareness

The singer and the designer share an intimate conversation about how the disease has touched their lives and why they’re fighting for better care

- Max Farago

Every two minutes, a woman in the United States is diagnosed with breast cancer. To help raise awareness about the importance of prevention, detection, and equal access to care, designer Stella McCartney has created a limited-edition Ophelia Whistling lingerie set to celebrate what she calls “femininity in the face of severity,” along with a corresponding ad campaign featuring Grammy Award– winning singer Alicia Keys. A portion of the proceeds from sales of the lingerie will benefit both the Linda McCartney Centre, a breast-cancer treatment facility in Liverpool, England, and the Memorial Sloan Kettering Breast Examination Center of Harlem, an outreach program that offers the local community free screenings, including mammograms, ultrasounds, and MRIs. (The American Cancer Society recommends that women ages 40 to 44 should have the choice to start annual breast cancer screening with mammograms if they wish to do so—i.e., insurance should pay for it—while women ages 45 to 54 should get mammograms every year. Women 55 and older can switch to mammograms every two years or continue with yearly screenings. Speak to your doctor about what’s right for you.) Keys and McCartney sat down to discuss the campaign and their mutual passion to help women find the care they need.